Steilneset is a memorial on the edge of Vardø in Norway remembering the 91 people convicted of sorcery and burnt at the stake. The last major installation by artist Louise Bourgeois is contained within a building and information centre designed by architect Peter Zumthor. The monument stretches out into the stark Scandinavian landscape, a modern addition to remember the past crimes of a harsh era. Svein Ronning, curator of Norway’s ongoing National Tourist Routes programme, invited Bourgeois and Zumthor to collaborate on the tourist attraction, as part of an ambitious scheme which involves man-made follies popping up across the Norwegian landscape. The open structure was inspired by the wooden racks used to dry the daily fish in the local villages, and contains a stretched canvas corridor. 91 windows, one for every victim, line this internal space, with solitary bulbs and pieces of silk describing their fate. Alongside this information centre is a black glass cube housing Bourgeois’s artwork, The Damned, The Possessed and The Beloved.
